Campaigns

The Library Campaign website has a comprehensive and up-to-date list of local library groups and campaigns throughout the country, along with links to their websites and social media accounts.

There is also plenty of information about campaigns, proposed cuts and closures on the Public Libraries News site, which has been set up with the purpose of collecting news about libraries under threat of closure across the United Kingdom.

I am heartened to learn of all the many campaigns up and down the UK, voicing the deep concerns of all citizens who rely on all the many library services.
For what do we pay our taxes? For these hard-won facilities. Our forefathers had to be content with such things as ‘paying libraries’ (e g Boots) – let us not witness a return (unnecessarily) to ‘hungry 30’s’ conditions.
In Loughborough we have generous opening hours along with many activities which are well participated in, e g readers’ groups.
So include me in, ref the crusade for maintaining library facilities.

Oxfordshire County Council are going to close our local Library in Berinsfield. They are also closing Benson. Our library is well used and popular with the local school children. It offers a place for people to go to read quitely or use the computer if needed. Once this vital service is gone, our nearest library will be Wallingford or Abingdon, both places our local Primary School and most of the people that use the library would find it difficult to get to. This is a disgusting decision and a terrible cutback motivated by using the libraries as a soft target rather than cutting back some of County Halls inflated salaries and inefficent services.

Renfrewshire Council is attempting to downgrade our local library, moving it into the community centre and making it a paperback service. We are campaigning against this. One event we organised was a reading by Alasdair Gray. By videoing the event and creating a short edit posted on YouTube we got further support and spread the word. Documenting events is useful but make sure you create short punchy edits, take time to interview people but use a proper microphone, it make a huge difference. When posting to Youtube if you have a site or facebook group you want people to link to put it at the start of the description. Our film is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRcFiYO8bgA

Stoke-on-Trent City Council are scrapping the libraries in Burslem and Fenton, two areas of the city already in dire need of investment. The city as a whole is in need of a massive injecti-on of not just cash, but creative ideas for the future. The best way of encouraging and nurturing local ideas is to place the means of providing the resources at the heart of the community. Some have said the libraries are less relevant, due to the rise of the internet. So are those without access to the ‘net to be denied the opportunity to learn, to discover and make use of the wealth of knowledge to be found in these vital places? Do we simply say to those who failed at school, no second chances, you should have tried harder? A society is not a political party or set of beliefs, it is a living thing, diverse and ever changing. If we value the future of society, we must ensure that all knowledge is freely available. To do anything else is to say we are civilised, upto a point. A library is not just a building full of books, it is a vital organ within the body of a truly civilised society.

Kenilworth Library may cut from 51 to 35 hours – I know that is no closure, but my aim to to come up with some Real Blue Sky ideas for Warwickshire. As yet, I have heard of no Warwickshire campaigns – has anyone else?

The Warwickshire Library “consultation” is a complete joke! Nowhere in the consultation does it mention the important things like library closures or cuts to hours. It’s sole purpose it to get people to volunteer and give the service money. It’s shocking, it really is.

I thought that as nobody else appears to have told you, there is a legal challenge gone in against the Isle of Wight Council who are planning to close 5 of our 11 libraries at the end of June. Leigh Day are representing us. In fact the IW Council are so underhand that they have waited until after they recieved the solicitors letter before carrying out impact assessments. A number of residents have also written to the Secretary of State (Jeremy Hunt) who has simply pushed their complaints aside.
Please contact me if you’d like more information.
Thanks and good luck with the challenge

It seems likely that despite collecting over 600 signatures in our fairly small community, Rawdon library will close. We held back from offering to volunteer out of respect for paid employees. We believe that our community will lose a vital organ of information and community cohesion. How do we go about raising a legal challenge.

I live in the West Midlands and I’m struggling to find a comprehensive list of libraries that have YET to close but are facing the axe – can anyone tell me how I can get involved, what campaigns are still running in the region etc?

There’s no comprehensive list of library campaigns yet! Try contacting local ‘friends of’ groups to see if they know of anything. Many campaigns also have Facebook pages, so that can be a good place to find out about them. If there isn’t already a campaign in your area, set one up!

You can also look on the council website for indications of proposed closures/cutbacks, and for information about consultations (if any) and how to take part in them.

The remainder will have a vastly increased area and population to serve (almost certainly without any extra resourcing) – what will happen to them?

Tory Councillor Roger Croad, Devon cabinet member for libraries of the Conservative-run council, said: “This is not a closure programme, I can absolutely assure you we are committed as a county council to libraries. We just need to evolve the way we support them and move forward.”…

The council is putting forward proposals for us to take over the running of the libraries in our free time…
Is he serious? does he really think that our libraries can survive in these rural towns without financial support from the county?

What do you think? How do you think library services in general and the access to reading for the young and elderly will suffer if in order to keep the local library open you will have to volunteer to do it? … or travel a 20 mile or more round trip to your nearest large town to get a book or access the internet?

DCC have launched a consultation exercise on their ‘Tough Choices’ website http://new.devon.gov.uk/libraryreview/ for you to voice your views – how about filling in the questionnaire and making them known? Proposal 2 is the one that threatens your local library…

MY NAME IS MISS JOYCE I AM A SINGER. I PICKED UP THE MAGAZINE MATURE TIMES YESTERDAY. I ALWAYS LOOK FORWARD TO GETTING THE MAGAZINE. I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED WHEN I READ SOME OF THE ARTICLES. I THINK SOME PEOPLE DO NOT UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT A LIBRARY IS TO BABIES AND CHILDREN AND TEENAGES, AND ADULTS. I HAVE NO IDEA WHO HAS MADE THAT DESISION TO CLOSE ANY LIBRARY AT ALL. I LOST MY BEAUTIFUL MOTHER OF CANCER I WOULD LIKE TO SHARE SOMETHING WITH YOU SOMETHING MY MUM TOLD ME BECAUSE SHE HAD TO LOOK AFTER HER BROTHERS AND SISTERS IN JAMAICA SO MUM LOST OUT ON HER SCHOOLING. I TAUGHT MUM HOW TO READ AND WRITE. THIS IS WHAT MY MUM SAID TO ME SHE SAID JOYCE EDCUATION EDCUATION EDCUATION……………………………………………………………….. MUM SAID IT EVERYDAY. MUM AND I AM SURE A LOT OF OTHER PEOPLE IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD KNOWS EDCUATION IS VERY IMPORTANT IT DOES NOT MATTER WHAT AGE YOU ARE EDCUATION WILL ALWAYS BE 1 OF THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IN OUR LIVES. MY FAVOURITE PLACE IS THE LIBRARY I GO TO ALL OF THEM AND I EVEN KNOW THE STAFF OF ALL THE ONES I GO TO, SO WHO EVER SAID CLOSE THE LIBRARIES PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE THINK AGAIN. GOD BLESS MISS JOYCE THE SINGER. I RAISED 3 CHILDREN ALL BY MY SELF YOU CAN ASK THEM DANIEL AND SHAUN AND PARADISE IF THEY WAS NOT IN THE LIBRARY EVERY SINGLE DAY, YOU CAN ASK THEM IF I MISS JOYCE DID NOT SAY PLEASE READ AT LEAST 1 BOOK PER DAY. THANK YOU AND GOOD BYE. PLEASE THINK AGAIN WHO EVER SAID CLOSE THE LIBRARY OR EVEN ANY LIBRARY. BYE.